African Americans in the Gold Rush
Slavery in the Gold Rush
White southerners brought black slaves into the California mines as early as
the summer of 1849. Slave owners and slaves came primarily from western U.S. states -- Texas, Mississippi,
Missouri, Arkansas. Among them were Stephen Spencer Hill and Wood Tucker, who mined near Columbia. Slavery
wasn't popular in the mines, but there were no laws barring it in the early days of the gold rush.
Statehood
In Washington, Congress was embroiled in a rancorous debate over whether the land acquired during the war with
Mexico, including California, would be admitted to the union as free or slave states. The nation was evenly divided,
with 15 states free and 15 states slaveholding. California would tip the balance in one direction or the other.
Delegates Declared California a Free State
By September of 1849 Californians were tired of waiting for the federal government to act on the matter of their
statehood. Forty-eight state delegates gathered in Monterey and voted to join the Union. Many of California's
delegates were from slave states, but they were also miners. They had experienced the hard physical toil of
digging for gold and the majority thought slavery an unfair advantage in the mines. They declared California a free
state, writing into the constitution, "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, unless for punishment of crimes,
shall ever be tolerated in this State."
Threat of Dissolution
With the north and the south at an impasse, California's demand for admission as a free state raised the specter of
dissolution of the Union. "Where is the line to be drawn? What States are to secede? What is to remain American?
What am I to be -- an American no longer?" asked Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster. The debate went on for
six months. At one point, one senator drew a pistol on another.
The Compromise
Finally, Congress reached the Compromise of 1850, under which California entered the Union under the state
delegates' terms. New Mexico and Utah also became territories, without determining whether they would be free or
slave states. The slave trade was banned from the District of Columbia and the Fugitive Slave Law was tightened.
"Whatever party may prevail hereafter, the Union stands firm," said Webster.
Anti-slavery, Not Anti-racist
The Monterey delegates who made California a free state did so largely on the basis of the mining economy. They
did not extend civil rights to California's African Americans or Native Americans. Both groups were denied the right
to vote and the right to testify in court. One delegate had even rallied substantial support for banning blacks from
California altogether, but the provision was dropped from the constitution. In 1852 California passed its own
version of the Fugitive Slave Law, allowing white slave owners to reclaim escaped black slaves.
Free Blacks
Despite the racially charged climate in California, free blacks, many from
northeastern states where black people possessed comparatively more rights, were nonetheless eager to get to
California. They tended to dismiss the reports of prejudice and hardship. Instead, they focused on the accounts of
financial success and freedom. To combat the unfairness of laws such as the one that prevented them from
testifying in court, they petitioned and organized statewide "colored conventions." They had support from
sympathetic whites, as was seen in the case of Stephen Spencer Hill.
Mexicans in the Gold Rush
Soon after gaining independence from Spain in 1821, Mexico opened its northern coastal region of California to
foreign trade. American vessels from the east were soon engaged in lucrative commerce with the Californios,
Californians of Spanish or Mexican descent. Offering such necessities as cooking utensils and boots, as well as
luxuries such as brandy, the Americans reaped profits of 200 to 300 percent. In exchange, the Californios exported
cowhides produced on their vast coastal ranches.
Different Worlds
The Americans deemed California ripe for opportunity, but thought the Californios lazy and their pastoral lifestyle
primitive. Richard Henry Dana of Boston spent sixteen months in California, living among people he thought lacked
"industry, frugality and enterprise." In Two Years Before the Mast, published in 1841, Dana wrote "In the hands of
an enterprising people, what a country this might be!"
Manifest Destiny
During the 1840s, an increasing number of Americansventured west into
Texas, Oregon, and California. They possessed the sense that their destiny was to establish a nation that included
both coasts and all that lay in between. In 1835 President Andrew Jackson had attempted to buy California for $3.5
million. Mexico had rejected the offer, but the U.S. would not be thwarted. Ten years later, in his inaugural address
President James K. Polk provocatively proposed annexing Texas, and he put remote California high on his list of
property to acquire.
Treaty on the Eve of the Gold Rush
On May 13, 1846, the U.S. and Mexico went to war. Two years later, Mexico formally delivered California into
American hands with the signing of the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848. The vision of Manifest
Destiny was fulfilled. Neither side realized that nine days earlier flecks of gold had been found in the foothills of the
Sierra Nevada.
Mexican Miners
In the fall of 1848, the first wave of Mexican miners traveled overland to California to join the gold rush. They
numbered between two and three thousand and often traveled in entire families. By early 1849, there were an
estimated 6,000 Mexicans digging for gold. In California, a region that had so recently been their own, the
Mexicans found they were considered foreigners by the legions of Anglo miners from the east.
Experienced Miners
To make matters more difficult, many of the Mexicans were experienced miners which soon made them the target
of American animosity and violence. Californio Antonio Franco Coronel wrote, "The reason for most of the antipathy
against the Spanish race was that the majority of them were Sonorans who were men used to gold mining and
consequently more quickly attained better results."
Foreign Miners Tax
To eliminate competition, in April 1850 California passed a statewide foreign miners' tax, which charged foreign
nationals $20 per month to work the placers. The tax was rigidly enforced against Mexicans and Chileans to
encourage them to leave the gold region. In some cases, the new law prompted revenge.
Chinese Immigrants and the Gold Rush
Gold Mountain
By 1848, when the first Chinese arrived in San Francisco, the Chinese already had an established pattern of leaving
China to work in other parts of the world. High taxes after the Opium Wars had forced many peasants and farmers
off their land. Several years of floods and droughts led to economic desperation. Then merchant vessels brought
news of Gam Saan, or gold mountain. The majority of Chinese men who sailed to California were illiterate, but
dreamed of new possibilities.
One-fifth of the Population
Chinese miners tended to live in groups and work claims the Americans had
abandoned. Initially, Americans found the newcomers -- with their wide hats and chopsticks -- peculiar and would
visit Chinese camps for amusement. Then, in 1852, a year of serious crop failure in southern China, 20,026
Chinese flooded the San Francisco customs house. The previous year only 2,716 had arrived. By the end of the
1850s, Chinese immigrants made up one-fifth of the population of the four counties that constituted the Southern
Mines.
Racism
One Yankee miner complained, "Chinamen are getting to be altogether too plentiful in this country." Governor John
Bigler voiced public sentiment when he suggested stemming the tide of Chinese immigration. A Chinese man
responded with a letter to the Alta California, writing "The effects of your late message has been thus far to
prejudice the public mind against my people, to enable those who wait the opportunity to hunt them down, and rob
them of the rewards of their toil."
Robberies and Murders
In May 1852 the state imposed a Foreign Miners Tax, the second such tax on non-Americans in two years. This
time, a levy of $3 per month was explicitly directed at the Chinese miners. And, as predicted, violence increased.
The Alta California reported that 200 Chinese miners had been robbed and four murdered at Rich Gulch. When
miner Alfred Doten's camp was robbed, he blamed some convenient Chinese. "We visited our camp on the gulch
and found it had been broken into so we went in and kicked up a row with the Chinese and told them we would
shoot them if they stole any more."
Business and Servitude
Chinese men moved into other occupations, including the laundry business,
domestic service and later railroad building. Yee Ah Tye became a partner in a store called Hop Sing in La Porte. By
1866 it was the richest Chinese store in that town, with a value of $1,500 (about $36,000 in 2005 dollars). Only a
few Chinese women came to the U.S. before 1880, but many of those who did served as prostitutes for people like
Ah Toy. Upon arrival, they were examined and sold for between $300 and $3,000 to brothel owners or wealthy
Chinese seeking a mistress.
Rose-colored Glasses
When Chinese miners sent their gold home, their families quickly assumed a prominent new place. Women married
to successful miners were called "gold mountain wives." As they built new houses, they were subject to gossip and
envy. Rarely did stories about the hard work and the daily discrimination faced by Chinese in America find their
way across the Pacific.
Significant Contributions
By 1870 there were 63,000 Chinese in U.S., 77% of whom were in California. That year, Chinese miners
contributed more than $5 million to state's coffers through the Foreign Miners Tax, almost one quarter of state's
revenue.
In 1882, Congress enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act, the only American law to specifically bar one group from
immigrating to the United States.